https://github.com/jonthornton/mtapi
JSON proxy server for the MTA's realtime New York City subway feed
https://github.com/jonthornton/mtapi
mta nyc subway transit
Last synced: 6 months ago
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JSON proxy server for the MTA's realtime New York City subway feed
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/jonthornton/mtapi
- Owner: jonthornton
- Created: 2014-07-14T20:47:44.000Z (about 11 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2024-04-06T02:21:24.000Z (over 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-03-29T19:02:40.412Z (6 months ago)
- Topics: mta, nyc, subway, transit
- Language: Python
- Homepage:
- Size: 146 KB
- Stars: 292
- Watchers: 26
- Forks: 84
- Open Issues: 10
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
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README
# MTA Realtime API JSON Proxy
MTAPI is a small HTTP server that converts the [MTA's realtime subway feed](https://api.mta.info/#/landing) from [Protocol Buffers/GTFS](https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/) to JSON. The app also adds caching and makes it possible to retrieve information by location and train line.
## Active Development
This project is under active development and any part of the API may change. Feedback is very welcome.
## Running the server
MTAPI is a Flask app designed to run under Python 3.3+.
1. Create a `settings.cfg` file. A sample is provided as `settings.cfg.sample`.
2. Set up your environment and install dependencies.
`$ python3 -m venv .venv`
`$ source .venv/bin/activate`
`$ python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt`
3. Run the server
`$ python app.py`
If your configuration is named something other than `settings.cfg`, set the `MTAPI_SETTINGS` env variable to your configuration path.
This app makes use of Python threads. If running under uWSGI include the --enable-threads flag.
## Endpoints
[Endpoints to retrieve train data and sample input and output are listed here.](https://github.com/jonthornton/MTAPI/tree/master/docs/endpoints.md)
## Settings
- **MTA_KEY** (required)
The API key provided at hhttps://api.mta.info/#/signup
*default: None*
- **STATIONS_FILE** (required)
Path to the JSON file containing station information. See [Generating a Stations File](#generating-a-stations-file) for more info.
*default: None*
- **CROSS_ORIGIN**
Add [CORS](http://enable-cors.org/) headers to the HTTP output.
*default: "*" when in debug mode, None otherwise*
- **MAX_TRAINS**
Limits the number of trains that will be listed for each station.
*default: 10*
- **MAX_MINUTES**
Limits how far in advance train information will be listed.
*default: 30*
- **CACHE_SECONDS**
How frequently the app will request fresh data from the MTA API.
*default: 60*
- **THREADED**
Enable background data refresh. This will prevent requests from hanging while new data is retreived from the MTA API.
*default: True*
- **DEBUG**
Standard Flask option. Will enabled enhanced logging and wildcard CORS headers.
*default: False*
## Generating a Stations File
The MTA provides several static data files about the subway system but none include canonical information about each station. MTAPI includes a script that will parse the `stops.txt` and `transfers.txt` datasets provided by the MTA and attempt to group the different train stops into subway stations. MTAPI will use this JSON file for station names and locations. The grouping is not perfect and editing the resulting files is encouraged.
Usage:
```
$ python make_stations_csv.py stops.txt transfers.txt > stations.csv
# edit groupings in stations.csv
$ python make_stations_json.py stations.csv > stations.json
# edit names in stations.json
```
## Help
Submit a [GitHub Issues request](https://github.com/jonthornton/MTAPI/issues).
## Projects
Here are some projects that use MTAPI.
* http://wheresthefuckingtrain.com
## License
The project is made available under the MIT license.